"Oklahoma used the
wrong drug to stop an inmate's heart during an execution in January,
according to an autopsy report obtained by a newspaper. The
Oklahoman... reported Thursday that corrections
officials used potassium acetate — not potassium chloride, as required
under the state's protocol — to execute Charles Frederick Warner. Last
week, Gov. Mary Fallin issued a last-minute stay for inmate Richard
Glossip after officials discovered that potassium acetate had been
delivered on the day of his scheduled execution. All executions in
Oklahoma are on hold at the request of Attorney General Scott Pruitt as
the state investigates the mix-up. Potassium chloride, which stops the heart, is the final drug in the state's protocol following a sedative and paralytic. Items
used in Warner's execution were sent to the Office of the Chief Medical
Examiner, which performed an autopsy. The report said the office
received two syringes labeled "potassium chloride" but that the 12 vials
used to fill the syringes were labeled "single dose Potassium Acetate
Injection." After receiving
the first drug in the series, midazolam, Warner said, "My body is on
fire," but showed no other signs of distress and was pronounced dead
after 18 minutes... Last week, the Death Penalty Information Center said potassium acetate had never been used in a U.S. execution. Warner
is the only inmate executed in Oklahoma since the April 2014 lethal
injection of Clayton Lockett, who writhed and moaned on the gurney for
more than 40 minutes after an intravenous line was improperly placed,
causing the drugs to go into his tissue instead of bloodstream. That
case, which cited the sedative midazolam, ended up before the U.S.
Supreme Court, which upheld the use of the drug in June."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3264940/Oklahoma-used-wrong-drug-January-execution.html